Jeff Jarrett recently conducted a rare interview with Alfonso Castillo located HERE. Jarrett discusses a ton during the course of the interview and the following are a few excerpts:
On whether he’s happy with TNA’s ratings:
You can look at it from a number of factors. You look at where we’ve come. We’ve gone from a .7, .8 to a 1.3 on Spike network. You can look at ECW. They started in the high 2’s, and now they’re in the 1.2, 1.3 range – a tremendous drop. Smackdown you can’t really count because they’ve changed networks. They’ve had their issues, but as a matter of fact, they’ve done extremely well. You look at Raw. They went, over the last three or four years, they went from the 4’s to the 3’s, and now they’re back up there. So it’s an ebb and flow. And they tout themselves as the longest running series. It’s phenomenon that from 1993 to 2009, they’ve been on 17 years. They’ve got a 14-year, 15-year head start on us.
So am I satisfied? Absolutely, I’m very satisfied. Talk to the network heads at Spike TV and ask them. Am I happy? As a businessman, we’ve got to keep growing. We’ve got to keep growing the product internationally, domestically. We’ve got to keep hitting on all cylinders. So I think that’s maybe a two-sided question. I hope I’m articulating myself right.
On whether it was hard to put the focus on himself with the release of his DVD:
Without question. Alfonso, I am elated that you asked the question, because now I can tell the story. This DVD has been on the books for, I want to say, a minimum of two years, maybe three. I’ve always wanted to put it off, cancel it, put other guys in front, put other series in front, put another pay per view in front – I’ve always found a way to push it off, and push it off and push it off. And then, through the sickness of my wife, I was off television, so obviously, and with the passing of her, there was no reason to put one out. And now I’ve been back since the end of last summer. I’ve been back seven or eight or nine months.
We’ve hired a new marketing team and we’ve got a new VP of marketing and a new CMO – chief marketing officer – we’ve got a lot of new people in our marketing department. And quite frankly, they came to me and said, “Jeff, now is the perfect time. We’re doing it. We really need to do this.” And I looked at it and I said, “I agree with you. Let’s do it. Let’s make it really special and let’s make it an in-depth look, because nothing has ever been done like this on me before.” So I think the hard work is going to pay off.
On his relationship with Vince McMahon:
I’ll say there’s a personal relationship with the entire McMahon family and Jeff Jarrett. As far as a working relationship – absolutely not. We’re competitors. But a personal relationship? Without a doubt. The entire McMahon family was very, very good to me during the passing of my wife, and that’s something I’ll never forget.
